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In a section of the draw housing Juan Martin del Potro, Milos Raonic, and of course, the great Rafael Nadal, it is the 18-year-old Canadian wildcard, Shapovalov, and the unheralded French world number 42, Mannarino, who have battled through a difficult field to emerge as unlikely quarter finalists. Their progress has not been by chance or accident, they have played some outstanding tennis, and taken out some of the best players in the world to get to this point. Opportunity beckons on Friday- which of these two will take his chance?

It’s been quite the week for Shapovalov: His opening round win over Rogerio Dutra Silva, during which he saved four match points, was captivating enough; his second round upset of Juan Martin del Potro raised plenty of eyebrows, but he took it to a completely different level on Thursday night, showing immense skill and heart to out-battle the ATP’s ultimate warrior, Nadal on a gripping night in Montreal.

Before now, the 2016 Wimbledon Junior champion had been best remembered, by the casual tennis fan at least, as the man who got defaulted for smacking a ball into an umpire’s case, but this win over Nadal firmly casts that into the background. Shapovalov is the man who stopped Nadal from returning to No. 1 in Montreal.

Nadal described the defeat as his ‘worst match this season’, but Shapovalov won’t care about that, as he produced the performance of his young career to score a mighty win over ‘the best player he has ever faced in his life’.

The teenager was up for the battle from the start, staying with his celebrated opponent for the first six games, but Nadal pulled away after that, winning three games in a row to bag the opening set after 38 minute. It was shaping into the expected routine two-set win, but Shapovalov had other ideas. The Canadian surged to a 4-1 lead, and despite being pegged back to 4-4, he held his nerve to win the next two games and force a decider.

Shapovalov saved a break point in the opening game of the final set, but the pivotal passage of play came two games later, when the world number 146 fended off three more break points to secure a massive hold after a 14-minute game. Nadal continued to probe, carving out two more break points in Shapovalov’s next service game, but the Canadian resisted bravely. After weathering that early storm, Shapovalov offered no more opportunities as the set wound up into a tie break.

Again, it was Nadal who took early control of the breaker, opening up a 3-0 lead, but Shapovalov just would not go away. He drew level with three straight points, and then won four points in a row from 3-4 to complete the biggest win of his career. The 18-year-old becomes the youngest ever Masters 1000 quarter finalist, and the youngest player to defeat a Top 2 player in a completed match since a 17-year-old Nadal upset Roger Federer in Miami in 2004.

"I don't know if a lot of players fold or if he just outplays them at the end," Shapovalov said. "I was down 3-0 in the tie-break. I did a good job to regroup. I knew I had to win both the points off my serve. Yeah, then he gave me a double [fault] to tie it up.

"I just tried to stay calm, tried to play every point, go for my shots. At the end of the day I really tried to keep playing my game and stick to my tactics."

Already projected to meet his 2016 goal of rising to the top 100, Shapovalov can go as high as the top 70 should he get past another lefty, Adrian Mannarino on Friday night.

Adrian Mannarino. (Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images)

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After falling one win shy of the quarter finals in Miami and Monte Carlo, Mannarino is into his first Masters 1000 quarter final after a silently efficient week in Canada. He has come through the first three rounds without dropping a set. The Frenchman opened with an impressive 6-3 6-1 victory over Russian, Daniil Medvedev, who had been playing some very good tennis since the grass court season. He backed it up with a huge win over home favourite, Milos Raonic, breaking the Canadian’s formidable serve three times in a 6-4 6-4 victory.

The 29-year-old then defeated Korean NextGen star, Hyeon Chung on Thursday to move into the last eight. It wasn’t as straightforward as the 6-3 6-3 score-line suggests; Mannarino saved five break points in the opening set, including battling back from 15-40 down as he served for the opener. After an early exchange of breaks at the start of the second set, the Frenchman pulled away from his opponent, engineering two more breaks on his way to the hour-and-30-minute victory. Mannarino is into an ATP quarter final for the second successive week, backing up his efforts in Los Cabos last week.

He has been in decent touch since the grass court season, having reached his second tour final in Antalya (lost to Yuichi Sugita), and made the fourth round at Wimbledon. His only other notable results this year were those Round of 16 showings in Miami and Monte Carlo. He also had a decent spell when he dropped to the Challenger Tour earlier in the season, claiming titles in Noumea and Quimper.

While Mannarino doesn’t strike the heaviest of balls, he takes it flat and early, giving Shapovalov a totally different look from what the Canadian faced against Nadal in the previous round. Having dealt with Juan Martin del Potro and Rafael Nadal, the exciting Shapovalov will not be too fazed by that prospect. A lot will depend on how quickly he can recover from the emotional high of such a huge victory over the great Spaniard. He has certainly got the shots to take out Mannarino. Backed by a raucous Montreal crowd, can the talented Canadian continue this dream run, or will the steady Mannarino douse the fire of the youngster?

Denis Shapovalov vs Adrian Mannarino is live from Montreal on Friday, 11 August from 6:30pm local time/ 11:30pm BST

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Denis Shapovalov and Adrian Mannarino meet in a surprise Montreal quarter final on Friday. Can home darling Shapovalov continue his dream run? Read our preview, predictions and stream the match live online.